One known example of a steering wheel for steering a vehicle such as automobile has a main body assembled on a steering shaft for converting a rotating action to a steering action and a pad disposed approximately in the center of the main body, wherein the pad is assembled on the main body in a manner that allows the pad to move in the axial direction of the steering shaft, and a horn switch is configured between the main body and the pad (see Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication Nos. 4-262965 and 2009-202859, for example).
The assembly structure of this steering wheel comprises, for example, a first horn plate fixed in place on the main body, guide pins placed upright on the first horn plate, a stoppers disposed on the distal end of the guide pin, a second horn plate fixed in place on the pad and disposed in a manner that allows the second horn plate to slide along the guide pin, a coil spring which is disposed along the guide pin and which biases the second horn plate in a direction which brings the second horn plate in contact with the stopper, and an elastic member disposed between the coil spring and the second horn plate.
A dynamic damper is configured by placing the elastic member between the coil spring and the horn plate as described above. The dynamic damper regulates the characteristic frequency of the pad as an element of mass to negate and damp the vibration transmitted from the main body by the resonance of the pad.